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Aged spirits such as whiskey and rum gain a lot of their flavor from their barrel, climate, and location, so different brands have significantly different flavors. A lot of what you taste in these types of spirits can be called 'impurities.' Most of the vodka we get in the west is heavily filtered and repeatedly distilled to remove all that until you essentially have alcohol, water and a bit of sugar. Vodka pretty much tastes like vodka no matter what shape the bottle is.

I have to tip my hat to Grey Goose for masterfully exploiting hipsters, though.

I've encountered this problem when I worked at a preschool some years ago as parents and administrations changed rules to enter into this sort of situation.

I recall only one student growing up that had food allergies. It was to chocolate. Our solution was to make everyone chocolate chip cookies, but make her peanut butter chip cookies. It worked fine. I've not encountered someone with massive allergies to nuts. Considering how much nuts are used in things, I would think this sort of thing would get eleminated via the natural selection process. Does anyone know when these sorts of allergies started (seemingly) to become common enough for all schools to ban peanuts or nuts in general?

Reuters
ORLANDO, Florida — Some public school parents in Edgewater, Florida, want a first-grade girl with life-threatening peanut allergies removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than deal with special rules to protect her health, a school official said.
"That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us," said Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District.

Wait said the 6-year-old's peanut allergy is so severe it is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

To protect the girl, students in her class at Edgewater Elementary School are required to wash their hands before entering the classroom in the morning and after lunch, and rinse out their mouths, Wait said, and a peanut-sniffing dog checked out the school during last week's spring break.

Wait said school leaders will meet this week with parents to address concerns and try to halt inaccurate rumors that children's mouths were being wiped with disinfectant.

Chris Burr, a father of two older students at the school whose wife has protested at the campus, said a lot of small accommodations have added up to frustration for many parents.

"If I had a daughter who had a problem, I would not ask everyone else to change their lives to fit my life," said Burr.

Attempts to reach the girl's parents for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

I'm really perplexed by the onslaught of "peanut allergy" ... its definitely real, hell, my wife suffers from it. But Ithekro is right... all these allergies (gluten, peanut, etc) in these percentages of the population is *recent*. I don't know how much is uninformed self-misdiagnosis versus "yes I was actually tested" either.

Some people argue that the increase is symptomatic of too many irritants in the environment going haywire and that our immunological systems are just freaking out at the overload. Our systems are not geniuses - they're known to be mistaken in what to freak out about.

Example: my wife had a terrible reaction to a cat shampoo (within about 15 minutes we were heading down to the ER because she couldn't breath at all - her throat closed up from swelling just from the fragrance). It was hot that day.... for the next 2 or 3 years she would have allergic reactions to random fragrances and to getting overheated. She'd sweat while we were walking and have an attack.

Her system was just overloaded and confused and was firing off the alarms at any condition that seemed to be similar to the initial attack. Very bizarre stuff. She finally got over it with a long slow program of exposure (rather like the successful treatments being tried for peanut and other allergies now with patients).

I've encountered this problem when I worked at a preschool some years ago as parents and administrations changed rules to enter into this sort of situation.

I recall only one student growing up that had food allergies. It was to chocolate. Our solution was to make everyone chocolate chip cookies, but make her peanut butter chip cookies. It worked fine. I've not encountered someone with massive allergies to nuts. Considering how much nuts are used in things, I would think this sort of thing would get eleminated via the natural selection process. Does anyone know when these sorts of allergies started (seemingly) to become common enough for all schools to ban peanuts or nuts in general?

What the? How about advising the allergic girl to not lick other kids' mouths?

Why the heck would the girl have a need to french her classmates?

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

So... The allergy's so severe she could die because someone in the same room as her has peanut breath?

Apparently - which brings up the legitimate question of "are the accommodation laws in the US being stretched too far for this situation?"

Often if someone is that fragile they'll set up a web-based link with collaboration software so the student can stay part of the class remotely. And they'd have the girl on every mitigation treatment available to grow out of the situation.... you *can* train the immune system to reduce out-of-control responses to allergens.

So... The allergy's so severe she could die because someone in the same room as her has peanut breath?

It's actually an extremely sensitive allergy for some. My daughter was diagnosed with severe peanut allergy, although her doctor doesn't think airborne exposure is a big threat in her case. Even so, it absolutely can be, and the risk of anaphylaxis is unfortunately pretty high with a peanut allergy.

All of that having been said, I still don't support public schools banning allergens for the sake of one or two kids (even my own). We all have to live in the world, and it doesn't come with pads and bumpers. Keeping her artificially safe a few years may seem kind, but I think it'd ultimately be a disservice. She has to make it part of her life to question everything she eats, use good judgment, and always be prepared with an epi-pen, and I don't want her to be lulled into thinking she can rely on someone else to be in charge of the situation. I know it's a completely raw deal for her, but that's just how it is, and I think she's going to get way more mileage out of concrete good habits than she would from some temporary charity in a controlled environment.

I've familiar with a newer method on allergy control by basically subjecting the immune system to small doses of the alergen over a prolonged period of time. Take say and aspirin allergy fr example. A patient takes small amounts of the drug over time until the point were the patient takes two pills a day, every day. However if they fail to take their pills there is a high risk of needed to start over again at the beginning with a quarter dose for weeks until they can get back to two pills a day. (at two pills a day, their immune response is suppressed and thus can take more if they actually need it).

My mother has food allergies to weird things (carrots, apples, squash, MSG) she's careful, though her cases are generally not life threatening in small accidental doses, like carrots in her soup or some preservative on her lettuce. She gets shots every other week or so to help and I think takes pills before eating to suppress weird responces. She was considered sickly growing up since they had no idea she was allergic to so many things (plus airborne hayfever type allergies. I even have those).

Myself, I only know of one things I am allergic to, juniper. I'm likely allergic to a few other things, but that is the only one I can confirm without needing to go to a doctor. I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to some spice used in fast foods places, but that only effects me for fifteen minutes and goes away, so I don't care.

Allergies are a real concern in my line of work, given the number and gravity of them. A simple trace of a allergen can be enough to cause a reaction and with all the confusion than can happen on a rush time, it's no wonder than restaurant can't usualy give 100% guaranty of safety.

I'm so use to my mother's reactions that we tend to not look concerned when she's coughing and shoulds like she's choking in a restaurant. Probably because it is "normal" for us and she eventually stops. The "oh that's just my mother" response.

Some people argue that the increase is symptomatic of too many irritants in the environment going haywire and that our immunological systems are just freaking out at the overload. Our systems are not geniuses - they're known to be mistaken in what to freak out about.

As a believer in the hygiene hypothesis, I would argue the opposite. Not enough exposure to normal particles in the environment especially as a child results in T cell and B cell progenitors not being negatively selected during development. Hence, the result is lymphocytes reacting to common substances.

Regarding the article: There's nothing wrong with teaching kids hygiene at an early age (I work at a medical school, yet certain people with MDs and/or PhDs still don't wash after using the toilet!) or teaching them about allergies (to avoid "allergy bullying" in the future), and the right to live is greater than the right to eat peanuts, but the steps being taken go way overboard. Requiring the mouth to be rinsed definitely goes too far, since that can be considered an intimate/internal part of the body.

The child with allergies will be unable to survive in any uncontrolled environment, such as any city street with sidewalk food vendors, parks, zoos, airplanes, movie theaters, etc. If the article is not exaggerating and her allergy is truly that severe, I can only strongly suggest desensitization therapy before letting her go anywhere.

As a believer in the hygiene hypothesis, I would argue the opposite. Not enough exposure to normal particles in the environment especially as a child results in T cell and B cell progenitors not being negatively selected during development. Hence, the result is lymphocytes reacting to common substances.

Regarding the article: There's nothing wrong with teaching kids hygiene at an early age (I work at a medical school, yet certain people with MDs and/or PhDs still don't wash after using the toilet!) or teaching them about allergies (to avoid "allergy bullying" in the future), and the right to live is greater than the right to eat peanuts, but the steps being taken go way overboard. Requiring the mouth to be rinsed definitely goes too far, since that can be considered an intimate/internal part of the body.

The child with allergies will be unable to survive in any uncontrolled environment, such as any city street with sidewalk food vendors, parks, zoos, airplanes, movie theaters, etc. If the article is not exaggerating and her allergy is truly that severe, I can only strongly suggest desensitization therapy before letting her go anywhere.

Actually I wasn't even talking about that subject (which I agree, an overly sterile environment for babies and toddlers retards the immune system maturation). I was talking about *overload* .... irritants, chemicals, materials we haven't evolved to cope with present in abundant quantities -- the immune system starts flailing with false positives.

We believe that my mother's allergy to penicillin much because of basically overdosing on it as a child. In the late 1940s it was the wonder drug afterall, and they would give it to anyone with anything. It is suspected that they saw her allergies as an illness (cold I guess) and attempted to treat it. Since they were unaware of her food allergies, she ate several of those thing and was treated with penicillin. She's allergic to penicillin now, but at least they are aware of it and her food allergies now.

Wowzers! AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stocks. The combined customer base of this upcoming behemoth will be 130 million humans, though the agreed deal will have to pass the usual regulatory and closing hurdles before becoming complete. The two companies estimate it'll take them 12 months to get through all the bureaucracy -- if they get through, the proposed network merger will create a de facto GSM monopoly within the United States -- but we don't have to wait that long to start discussing life with only three major US carriers. AT&T envisions it as a rosy garden of "straightforward synergies" thanks to a set of "complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations."

One of the other big benefits AT&T is claiming here is a significantly expanded LTE footprint -- 95 percent of Americans, or 294 million pops -- which works out to 46.5 million more than AT&T was claiming had it gone LTE alone. Of course, T-Mobile has never put forth a clear strategy for migrating to LTE, suggesting that AT&T plans on using the company's AWS spectrum to complement its own 700MHz licenses as it moves to 4G. You might be groaning at the thought of yet another LTE band, but it's not as bad as you might think: MetroPCS already has a live LTE network functioning on AWS, so there's precedent for it. For further details, hit up the gallery below, the Mobilize Everything site, or the official press release after the break.

In the event of the deal failing to receive regulatory approval, AT&T will be on the hook for $3 billion to T-Mobile -- a breakup fee, they call it -- along with transferring over some AWS spectrum it doesn't need for its LTE rollout, and granting T-Mo a roaming agreement at a value agreeable to both parties.

AT&T gains a GSM monopoly in the United States with this move.

Hopefully the FCC will shoot it down on antitrust grounds--I'm quite happy with T-Mobile, I don't wish to use a CDMA network, and if Ma Bell gobbles up my provider, I won't have any other GSM choice. Further reducing the already-small American cell provider choices from four to three is definitely not going to be good for the consumers.

I suspect Verizon and Sprint will fight this tooth and nail. Either way, communication is going to get a little more expensive and a lot less free.